Friday, May 20, 2011

IS THIS MY OLIVE BOWSER?

After not finding Olive Bowser (b1874 Armstrong County PA) I decided to search for a child with another name in the same time frame as Olive.

I searched for _______ Bowser, parents Jacob and Mary Bowser, b 1874, Armstrong County in the 1880 PA census on Ancestry.

What I found was Jacob Bowser (age 50) and his wife M Ann (age 47) living in Armstrong County, Mahoning Township, district 14. Also are listed S May (daughter) age 16, Andrew L age 9, Gertrude age 7, Maud age 6 (that would put Maud born in 1874), Enos age 4 and Annie J age 1.

In 1850 Jacob and Mary are living in Pine Township. The only child is Nathaniel

In 1860 I find Nathaniel 10, Lewella 7, Calven 6, Lafaette 3, Matthias 1. I have been following this particular family for a few months.

Can not locate the family in 1870. I have to do a wider search for them in 1870.

I am thinking that perhaps Maud was Olives middle or first name. I have not found any documentation of a middle name for Olive. On her husbands Civil War Pension File she is listed only as Olive. On the documents she does not sign, just makes her markl

More searching to be done, my instinct tells me this is Olives Family, and Olive and Maud are the same child. I just have to prove it. I will start with searching for Gertrude and Enos. Jacob and Mary Ann are not very common as a couple in Armstrong County.

6 comments:

Claudia, have you tried variations such as Bowers, Bowzer, Bauser, etc.? I know, of course, that this won't help when you're searching only first names.... Olive is giving you such a hard time! I hope you're able to find a link between Olive and Maud which proves them as the same person!

Interesting that the Bowser genealogy doesn't list all of the children you found and that they have a daughter born 1864 listed as Mary Elizabeth but her age lines up with the one you found as S May! Certainly a puzzle I hope you can solve.

I looked through the Bowser Genealogy book and did not find an Olive born in 1874. BUT I did find Maud. I have posted a query in the next edition of the Armstrong County Genealogy Newsletter and posted on the Rootsweb Bowser list.

Thanks for the link to the book, it will take a bit of time to go thru and look for Maud.

This info was primarily from The Bowser Family History p 248, #368. In 1880 she is living in Worthington, Armstrong Co. with her parents. I have Felix's obit which does not mention Olive, however he he died after Olive did. This however does not seem to match with the family you have found.

HOWEVER, I do have Jacob A. Bowser and Margaret Ann Murphy who have 8 kids among them. This is definitely the 1860 Pine Township family you found.

I don't know if this is at all helpful. I have more info if that is helpful. Happy hunting!

About Me

I live in Western PA. I have been working on my genealogy since 2007 or so. I became interested when closing my fathers belonging and wondering about the papers I had found related to my ancestors.
If you are related to any of my ancestors, please email me
cjsperl@gmail.com